- Release year: 2025
- Director: Jaclyn Bethany.
- Producers: Jaclyn Bethany, C. C. Kellogg, Sarah Keyess, Alex Sarrigeorgiou, and Tara Sheffer.
- Screenplay by: Alex Sarrigeorgiou.
- Cinematography by: Samantha Tetro.
- Music by: Juan Pablo Daranas Molina.
Synopsis: a woman with a bland life finds a source of excitement when she meets a painter that wants her as a muse.
Shotgun Commentary: aesthetically beautiful, thematically mid.
Review
In Transit is a coming-of-age story for those who came of age years ago. The type of narrative that reminds you that it is never too late to mature, and that you will never stop learning about yourself. If you love high-octane features, avoid this at all costs. However, if you happen to like calm, aesthetically-pleasing tales, this might just be what you’ve been looking for.
It all starts with Lucy (Alex Sarrigeorgiou), a young woman who works as a bartender at a small bar in Maine. Her life is dull and monotonous until an artist shows up, Ilse (Jennifer Ehle). Right about the same time, she gets the terrible news that the owner of the bar is going to sell it, leaving her jobless and destroying the only thing that reminds her of her father: the bar that he built. To navigate this turmoil, she has a wonderful, understanding, patient boyfriend named Tom (François Arnaud). Or she would, if she actually gave a sh*t about his existence.
The long purgatory
This last fact is one of the worst and best elements of the story. On the one hand, the complete lack of intimacy, chemistry or understanding between the characters is painful to watch. In fact, it is uncomfortable to the point where you begin to wonder if it is great acting or dreadful one. The man is very obviously there as an emotional wipe more than an actual human being. If there ever was a one-way relationship, this is it.
Their behaviour and their completely unbalanced relationship makes every single moment in the film predictable to dreary extremes. Nevertheless, this also has a positive take. Let’s be real, who hasn’t been in a relationship where love was absolutely dead but due to the objective goodness of the partner you try to drag it out in hopes of it getting better? Almost everyone is guilty of it, and that is perfectly natural. Things aren’t going wrong, and you care for the person even if you don’t love them, so why not pretend for a while and see if it gets fixed on its own? Is this a mistake? Absolutely. Is it also incredibly tempting? Yes, it definitely is.
As such, the dynamic between Lucy and Tom is depressing, yes, but also relatable. A quality that her relationship with Ilse struggles to be. Sure, having a relationship with an artist who likes you a lot one day and completely forgets about you the next is not exactly alien to the human experience, but it is the pace and the presentation that strive to make much sense. Their connection, in addition to other underdeveloped secondary storylines, gives the feature an overall feeling of being a draft instead of a final product.
The good and the bad
Good news is, if you are there mostly for the vibes, you’ll get plenty of those. From the very beginning, you will see a non-stop succession of frames that could just as well be part of a collection of winter postcards or of a nature calendar. As for the shots that include people, each of them looks like a painting. The use of light and colour feels carefully curated at all times, and the result is definitely gorgeous.
All in all, In Transit is a fairly good film. It could do without the random piano notes that show up at odd times, as well as with a bit more of a balanced audio. Not to mention the ever-annoying cut to white that is as pointless as it is eye-burning. But those details, along with the pointless elongation of the ending and a pretty irregular pace, are quite minor if you happen to like the look of the film or can engage with its story.
Advice to take from this movie:
- Don’t stay in a relationship out of laziness.
- Sometimes cooking well doesn’t save a relationship.
- It’s okay to leave your partner when they cheat, no matter what Hollywood says.
What’s your take? Have you watched In Transit? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message in my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀